Having advanced to the semifinals as the tournament's top seed in part due to a dominate regular season and in part due to a thorough victory over McPherson in the quarterfinals, the Tabor College volleyball team was outplayed by Bethel Friday night in Hillsboro. The Bluejays entered with accolades including superlatives from the conference for "player of the year" for Ashley Cohlmia and "setter of the year" Mandilyn Philips and all-KCAC recognition for Tina Frick (first team), Gina Hullet (second team) and Carly Kroeker (second team)?but none of it mattered to Bethel. The Threshers earned a berth in the finals with a win in straight sets (25-19, 25-13, 25-17). Earlier in the evening, Friends defeated Sterling (25-23, 22-25, 26-24, 25-15) to advance; the tournament final will be played at 7 p.m. Saturday in Hillsboro.
Bethel took a 2-0 lead in the first game and held an advantage on the scoreboard through much of the night. With a kill by Tina Frick, Tabor tied the first game at 7-7 but trailed by as many as six before Jordan Crosson's ace prompted a Bethel timeout at 21-17. The Threshers closed out the Bluejays with four of the final six in the first set, then rattled off seven of the first eight in the second game. The Threshers advanced their lead to 16-5 and blunted every Bluejays adjustment en route to a 2-0 lead in the match. Tabor trailed the final set of its season by a 10-5 score and did not recover.
